File: Soil liquefaction potential assessment of a coastal foundation ground and its suitability for a CCGT Power Plant construction in Greece.
Abstract
Clayey silty up to silty sandy and sandy soils are generally recognized to have a significant liquefaction potential when extended submerged below water table. This phenomenon raises a major concern to the foundation and structural engineer. Low plasticity silts, silty clays and silty sands occur extensively as recent alluvial deposits in the southern coastal region of Elefsina Municipality in Attica Prefecture, Greece.
In this area, a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Power Plant is planned to be constructed and its foundation stability and durability reassurance is of utmost importance to structural engineers. In the study of the geotechnical ground investigation for the foundation design of the CCGT project, a number of field and laboratory tests were carried out.
For evaluating its foundation soil liquefaction potential and risk during an earthquake, some internationally accepted guidelines are available based on soil density, void ratio, plasticity index, standard penetration test values, and other simple soil properties.
The liquefaction behavior and potential of this kind of foundation soils stratified in the alluvial deposits has been studied thoroughly based on both Seed’s and Idriss’s procedure / relationships as well as Prakash’s limit state methodology, using S.P.T. results and an algorithm program / software code, that was developed and published by the author. The S.P.T. tests were executed inside the twenty investigation - sampling boreholes of a depth range from 10 up to 50 meters each one, in an 100.000 s.m. plot, where a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Power Plant is planned to be constructed.
According to the results of these analyses and assessments the well documented and argued necessity is deduced either for transferring the project foundation loads to underlying deeper and more competent bearing strata and layers, or for strengthening, geotechnically upgrading (ground improvement), stabilizing and cement grouting the foundation ground of the CCGT Power Plant using jet grouting piles techniques.
Finally, the exact depth range under the CCGT Power Plant foundation site that is prone and dangerous to be liquefied in the event of a strong seismic shock and vibration was determined and diagrammatically presented and the remedial measures to be taken were suggested. Hence, in this way the liquefaction risk can be mitigated or even deterred from the incompetent upper natural soil layers of the project foundation ground.
Keywords: Soil Liquefaction Potential; Standard Penetration Tests & Values (S.P.T.); Grain Size Distribution; Sand, Silt; Clay; Ground Improvement; Geotechnical Properties; Foundation Ground; Alluvial Deposits; CCGT Power Plant
